Massa: Hamilton battle was fair
by Niamh O'Mahony, 12 October 2008
Felipe Massa has insisted that his battle with Lewis Hamilton in the opening laps of the Japanese Grand Prix was "hard but fair" despite being handed a drive-through penalty for clattering into his rival on lap two.
It was an eventful day for the Brazilian in Fuji - he was forced off track at the first corner, was then penalised for the incident with Hamilton before a collision with Sebastien Bourdais late on almost ended his day early.
"A strange race with everything that happened on track. In the end, seventh place is definitely not a disaster given that my closest rival failed to score points," Massa insisted.
"At the start, I got away well and had passed [Fernando] Alonso and [Heikki] Kovalainen. Then Hamilton braked over the limit and I found myself sandwiched between one car on the inside and one on the outside and all I could do was brake and stay behind.
"I think the duel that followed with Hamilton was hard but fair and the drive-through really penalised my race.
"In the second part, on the hard tyres, the car was flying, which is very encouraging for the next races."
Massa was also clear on who was to blame for the clash that saw Bourdais docked 25 seconds from his final race time.
"As for the incident with Sebastien, I think there's little to say: I had already entered the turn and he hit me from behind, spinning me round."
He concluded: "In the duel with Webber I saw a space down the inside and went for it. He moved over on me a little bit towards the wall which might have looked a bit scary but it was not like that from the cockpit. Anyway, it was a very important moment in the race and I had to try.
"Now we will give it our all in the next two races. We have great potential available to us and we must do all we can to exploit it."